its also so much larger than the skywalker, can make it difficult to transport. I've seen some videos of the SW being thrown around. I don't see the x8 being capable of that.

Not really, with the wings off each parts no longer than a walkers. I think the oposite with the capabilities too. I think the X8 will barrel roll, loop and fly inverted far better than the walker ever could. And it wont snap its wings in the process lol

Lets remember that the X8 is new and we don't know what problems if any it will have. It could have lots of problems nobodies encountered yet. I've seen a very few videos of the X8 flying and the few I have seen those pilots are not doing loops, rolls, inverted flight with full FPV gear.

The first X8's are just now being built and test flown. I'm going to wait and see a few months of reviews before I jump on the X8 bandwagon.

Originally Posted by Coyote64

Really Ian ? I see the X8 as a skywalker without the downsides

Load carying capacity - Yes
Flight duration of a walker - Yes + more
Stable - Yes

Badly designed wings that snap at the thought of doing a roll - Nope
Spare problems with wing design - Nope
Weak rear stab`s - Nope

Its got all the right features of a Skywalker, with none of the crap engineering you get with a walker. Win win to me

Yes really.
No Flaps possible thus
Longer/faster landings
Wings much more vulnerable to damage due to proximity to ground and fast landings
No obvious way to mount GoPro on Pan or P&T.
Much longer wing means not a plane you want to fly low and close to the ground, which
many people do with the SW. X8 is not a plane that's going to feel comfortable buzzing
around the local park between the trees.
Heavier, thus will use more power climbing requiring bigger batteries.
Also requires bigger more expensive power system in general.
The SW sets up and breaks down quicker, and will take up less space in the car.

I've got a Foamaroo (which can carry up to twin 5000mAh packs) and Skywalker, and they
each have their roles, but really not a replacement for one another at all. Of the two,
the Skywalker is still the most versatile platform.

And yes, I'm building an X8 now, but I don't see a lot of overlap in their missions.

ian

Originally Posted by Coyote64

Not really, with the wings off each parts no longer than a walkers. I think the oposite with the capabilities too. I think the X8 will barrel roll, loop and fly inverted far better than the walker ever could. And it wont snap its wings in the process lol

The X8 wing halves are longer than the original SW's. The fuse is shorter, but much fatter
and it'll be awkward to carry in the car. Imagine if all your antennas were sticking
straight out the side of the SW fuse rather than the top.

ian

Also, X8 will be preferable than SW for flying in windy conditions...

Have you seen how slow the X8 lands ? No flaps required
Yes agreed the wings might get damaged on landing, but better that then snap in the air writing the whole plane off
Agreed on the Gopro pan and tilt, but the now current V5 walker offers none of this either with the new canopy. I dont like the stock Gopro moulding in the X8 either, it points too low.
I use my walker for long range missions, with the 1900 wings i wouldnt be too keen buzzing around local parks either.
One of the new owners clocked 25mins flying with only 20% power used, so being heavier seems not to be a problem.
The walker sucks in any cross winds too, this wont be an issue with the X8

Anyway, going well off topic here.

I've seen the X8 skip several times on landing, and spin around backwards, so
it's not landing that slow. A big wing can get stuck in ground effect a long time.

V5 foam canopy can be cut down. In fact I've been wanting something like it,
so I can fill up the space behind my GoPro to make it a bit more aerodynamic. I'd
mount the pan exactly the same.

Cross winds, or cross gusts? Flying wings generally aren't optimal in either.
All planes will crab trying to fly a straight track perpendicular to a crosswind, but X8 will
have fixed forward view, so you won't be looking where you're going.
As for cross gusts (flying low near ground clutter in the wind), while it's true that
wings don't translate yaw into roll, every flying wing we've seen
so far has a fairly pronounced yaw oscillation (Every Foamaroo vid I've made
in the wind shows it, and so do a lot of Zephyr and ZII vids). We haven't seen that on the
X8 yet, but there's only been one video posted so far, flown over a flat desert.

ian

V5 foam canopy can be cut down. In fact I've been wanting something like it,
so I can fill up the space behind my GoPro to make it a bit more aerodynamic. I'd
mount the pan exactly the same.

You can with the X8, so thats 6 or two 3`s then. Both need modding to be able too, so the X8`s no worse

but X8 will
have fixed forward view, so you won't be looking where you're going.

Again, only if you limit your camera installation

Cross winds, or cross gusts? Flying wings generally aren't great in either.

I beg to differ, i can fly my 60" wing in high winds my walker, anything more than a slight breeze and its sides ( with the aerodynamics of a wall ) make forward flight sideways flight, gps gets confused, rth become button of certain doom

The pros and cons isn't the argument. The x8 seems to be great for long very long range, high speed work, while the Skywalker is for slower closer missions.

Also the Skywalker was my second plane and I could easily control it. I think the x8 looks to require more skill.

Originally Posted by Coyote64

You can with the X8, so thats 6 or two 3`s then. Both need modding to be able too, so the X8`s no worse

Cutting a little foam out of a relatively narrow removable foam canopy is one thing.
To get a 180 degree pan on the X8 with unobstructed view, would require hacking away 2-3
times as much foam and seriously weakening the nose. The X8 fuse is very wide,
so would have to remove a of foam to either side of the camera. They're very much
not the same.

I beg to differ, i can fly my 60" wing in high winds my walker, anything more than a slight breeze and its sides ( with the aerodynamics of a wall ) make forward flight sideways flight, gps gets confused, rth become button of certain doom

At the same airspeed with the same crosswind speed, both aircraft will fly with
exactly the same amount of crab angle. Most wings handle more steady wind better, because they fly faster.
In a steady crosswind, the side area of the plane is irrelevant. All aircraft see only
a headwind no matter which direction they're pointed, unless you're holding the
rudder over, or they're hit with gusts. A plane like the Skywalker rolls with crosswind
gusts because it carries it's center of mass well below the wing, so it has a lot of
effective polyhedral which causes changes in yaw angle to produce roll. Because
most of the mass is in the bottom of the fuse, if the side area of the fuse were relevant,
it would actually roll away from gusts rather than toward them, but it does not.

BTW, I'm not trying to talk anyone out of an X8. I just see them as fitting two very
different roles, with not a lot of overlap.

ian

We will have to agree to disagree Ian. Your saying the high sided fuse of the skywalker doesnt have any difference to the curved aerodymanic shape of the X8 or any other wing ?? Please, put a flat sided object and an egg shaped object in a wind tunnel, which one does the wind pass over the best ?

I dont think your coming across as trying to talk anyone out of the X8, just debating opinions

Dont get me wrong, im not trying to talk anyone into buying either, but for me, the X8 will do everything my walker can, but much better than the walker can at the same time

Great debate Ian and Ian, you are both right.

If the wing from the 1900 turns out to be much stronger than the 1800 then it will be a major step forward and BEVRC will have listened to their customers. It will then replace the 1800 as the best all round FPV ship for learning, cruising and AP.

The X8 will hopefully turn out to be a lot more fun for aerobatics and more efficient for long endurance than either Skywalker. Let's hope it has no structural issues.

Testing by the FPV community will answer both of the above questions.

The one advantage of the next batch of X8s is that they will be black EPO, now that is cool.

Originally Posted by electricmick

The one advantage of the next batch of X8s is that they will be black EPO, now that is cool.

"Black" and "cool" do not play well together when the sun is shining .

May be not much of an issue for you though - I lived 7 uears in the UK, I know there are not too many hot shiny days

For a moment, I thought I drifted to an X8 forum...